“Forces’ Sweetheart” still soldiering on

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 6

“Forces’ Sweetheart” still soldiering on

(From

GARRY ARTHUR,

London correspondent of "The Press")

Only a few weeks ago, Vera Lynn declined a £24,000 offer of a tour of Australia. Now she has agreed to fly out to New Zealand for just one Anzac Day concert in Dunedin, and straight home again.

Her special outlook on life is the reason for both decis-

ions. Vera Lynn is essentially a home-body, and is much happier making curtains for her new bungalow in Sussex than earning any amount of money on a gruelling personal tour. Only one thing seems to make her even happier — working for her many charities.

That is why she is going half-way round the world for a single concert, and is also why she is forgoing the holiday she had planned on

the way home. “Tours are a little bit exhausting,” she said today, “and they have to be long to be worth while. But this is different. It is a charity show, and as I probably won’t be going to New Zealand for commercial concerts in the future, well — I just thought it would be nice to go there. I enjoyed myself on my last visit.” ROYAL REQUEST She had hoped to have a holiday on the way back, but the Queen Mother has asked her to sing at a charity concert at the London Palladium, and she has agreed to rush back. “It’s a concert for the Alexander of Tunis Heart Fund,” she said. “They said they wouldn’t hold it without me.” So at the age of 54 the plumber’s daughter from the East End is still as indispensable for emotional occasions as she ever was. Sentiment and emotion have been inextricably linked with her showbusiness image ever since she was declared the “Forces Sweetheart" during World War 11. Then, her regular radio programme “Sincerely Yours”, introduced by personal messages from relatives to men at the front, brought her 1000 letters a week. Now the clock has turned a full circle in some respects with the return of the fashions of the forties — long flared skirts and clumpy shoes — and Vera Lynn is still getting letters from old soldiers. Many of them are from New Zealanders, al-

though she says it was difficult to tell who was what during the war. Some of them saw her when she visited troops in India and Burma. “I know there were a lot of New Zealand and Australian regiments out there,” she said, "because I get mail from them. When I was in New Zealand, they made efforts to come in groups to my concerts, and they would have a chat.” The songs that servicemen remember still are the ones that put a quiver in the stiff upper lips of beleagured Britons in the darkest days

of the war—“ White Cliffs of Dover,” “Yours,” “We’ll Meet Again” and dozens more that are still selling to nostalgic admirers. Luckily, Vera Lynn still likes them herself, because she says she has to sing all of them at her concerts. But during the sixties, she had to ride out the alien musical fashion of the rock ’n’ roll era. It was not until 1969 that she returned with her own television series. “I avoided the music field for a long time,” she said. “I couldn’t find a song’ that made sense to me. But in the last three years, there have been so many good songs written. The lyrics tell a deeper and more involved story. War-time songs were very sentimental. Youngsters are writing songs with much deeper meaning today.”

TV SERIES She likes the folk songs of! writers like Joni Mitchell and Tom Paxton, and has recorded some of them. In her recent six-part television series with the popular dance group, the Young Generation, she achieved a happy blend of her own songs and some of today’s chart-toppers. Since then she has been trying to record two new LPs —one called “Unforgettable Songs” and the other a collection of religious favourites such as “Ave Maria.” “We were rudely interrupted by the power cuts,” she said, "so they won’t be released until May.” Her songs seldom hit the top of the charts, but they keep selling, and she is reputed to have a five-figure income. It all began with the 7s 6d she earned when her father took her to sing at his local East Ham working men’s club. Later, she joined a local dance band as a vocalist. Her first broadcast, with Joe Loss’s band, at the age of 17, led to broadcasts with the late Charlie Kunz. A 8.8. C. producer asked her to take part

in a series of programmes for servicemen in the early days of the war—and before she knew it, she was Britain’s top vocalist. The British Expeditionary Force voted her its favourite singer. RESILIENT Today, after almost 40 years in show business, Vera Lynn can rank herself among the most resilient in the field. Like Marlene Deitrich, Frank Sinatra, and only a handful of others, she has weathered the most radical changes in musical fashions, and still somehow comes out on top.